Press: Don’t watch “13 Reasons Why”

• Hospital, schools feel impact of suicide series /Brooke Wolfard, Press

In its Sunday editorial, the Coeur d’Alene Press comments:

We need to be aware of suicide. On average, one Idahoan a day will take his or her life.

We need to talk about suicide. Only then can we help the subject shed its taboo skin.

What we cannot do, what we must not do, is glorify or justify or romanticize the act. Today there’s a preponderance of evidence showing that the likelihood of impressionable, distraught young people killing themselves increases if they’re exposed to suicide — through media or in real life and real death.

That’s why we find no legitimate defense for “13 Reasons Why” being disseminated as an “honest” tool “that will hopefully help people,” as its executive producer, Selena Gomez, suggests.

The series is entertainment of a very dangerous kind, and that’s not just our opinion. A growing force of mental health professionals is sounding the alarm that “13 Reasons Why” is hazardous to people’s health, a claim that’s being backed up in Kootenai County, where personnel are seeing a sudden spike in “acute hospitalization” of young people who have watched the show. More here.